Baidu Spark Browser: Fast, Free, Easy To Use And Good Looking

A fast and intuitive Chromium-based web browser with cool features and lots of nice touches.

Baidu Spark Browser is a worthy alternative to the likes of Google’s Chrome, Mozilla’s Firefox, or even, dare I say it, Microsoft’s Edge. It’s also completely free. The learning curve for new users of Baidu is thankfully very shallow. Chrome users will feel instantly at home as it’s based on Chromium, the same background engine used by Chrome. Baidu Spark browser also feels slick to use, has an uncluttered look and works just as well on older computers as it does on new machines. The download is small, and despite all the built-in features available, is light on system resources.

The learning curve for new users of Baidu is thankfully very shallow.

Key Features

Baidu browser comes with all the standard features you expect from a modern web browser. Where it really shines though, is in the details. One of the nicest original additions is its own mouse gesture navigation, and which despite my initial skepticism, is actually easy to master and saves a surprising amount of time when you’re just navigating around the web. Within a few minutes I found myself effortlessly swishing the mouse cursor this way and that to get things done. It’s little touches like that, that make you wonder why every browser doesn’t do something similar.

Screen-shots

Another nice tool that Baidu Browser has as standard, is the ability to take screen-shots of specific areas of the browser you are on, or capture an entire web-page, even if it doesn’t all fit on your screen. On a lot of browsers, this is an extension you would have to install yourself. It’s a great little addition, especially if you are (like me) a writer, or do on-line research. It also lets you annotate whatever you capture, all while in Baidu itself. It’a genius little addition, that as you may have guessed, I really like.

Video down-loader 

The integrated video down-loader is also a little gem. It allows you to grab clips from various websites and save them on your computer, and again the process is simple, and easy to use. You can also ‘Mute All Tabs’ if you find yourself beset by the sudden omnipresent annoyance of unwanted auto-play Spam audio you so often encounter on websites these days.

Also good for Google

Yes, Baidu is also good for doing what it was designed to do which is just browse the web. From all my use and testing over the last week, I can report that it runs smoothly, and I haven’t found any glitches or compatibility issues. New tabs open instantly, web-pages have all displayed perfectly, and Baidu resizes perfectly if you stack it in one half of your screen. Websites load without any issues, and the only limiting factor in speed seems to be dependent on the speed of your connection. Which is nice.

Conclusion

Baidu Browser is a very good browser, has some really nice features, is easy to use, and looks good and fresh. It’s certainly as worthy as Chrome in any case, and is well worth a look. And as it’s completely free, forever, you have nothing to lose by trialling it.

You can download Baidu Browser right here, right now, free, from Filehippo.com